Author(s): Shelby Van Pelt

Contemporary Fiction

'A beautiful examination of how loneliness can be transformed, cracked open, with the slightest touch from another living thing.' -- Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here

For fans of A Man Called Ove, a charming and compulsively readable exploration of friendship and hope, tracing a widow's unlikely connection with a giant Pacific octopus.

When Tova Sullivan's husband died two years ago, she talked her way into a job mopping floors at Sowell Bay Aquarium. Keeping busy helps her cope, which she's been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished.

Thirty and headlining for washed-up band Moth Sausage, Cameron Cassmore has some serious growing up to do. Then the discovery of an old class ring sends him on a mission to Sowell Bay to track down the father he's never known.

Marcellus, a 'prisoner' at the Aquarium, wouldn't lift one of his eight tentacles for his human captors until he forms a friendship with the cleaning lady. Keenly observant, but with time running out, Marcellus deduces that Cameron is a missing key to what happened the fateful night of Erik's disappearance.

Now Marcellus must use every trick his old, invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for Tova before it's too late . . .

'The rarest of feats: a book that manages to be wry and wise, charming and surprising, and features one of the most intriguing and satisfying characters I've encountered in fiction in a very long time . . . I defy you to put it down once you've started.' -- Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, author of The Nest

'A perfect story with imperfect characters, that is so heartwarming, so mysterious, and so completely absorbing, you won't be able to put it down because when you're not reading this book you'll be hugging it."-- Jamie Ford, author of The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

'Truly original and touching, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a story of family, community, and optimism in spite of darkness.' -- Helen Hoang, author of The Heart Principle